Space Studies Board

On March 30, 1992, Space Studies Board Chair Louis J. Lanzerotti sent the following letter to Dr. Lennard A. Fisk, associate administrator for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications.

It has reached the attention of the Space Studies Board that, as a response to the severe constraints in the FY 93 budget, the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) mission is currently undergoing a reevaluation to reduce its immediate funding requirements. In the present environment, the mission may be exposed to serious damage or outright cancellation. The Board would like to draw your attention to the extremely high priority that a series of National Research Council (NRC) astronomy advisory committees have attached to this mission over a long period of time. The following quotations from the reports of these committees express the great importance of an advanced x-ray telescope to the U.S. space research program:

A Strategy for Space Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 1980s, report of the Committee on Space Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Space Science Board, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. (1979):

A clear priority in x-ray astronomy is the development of a national facility telescope ... The great improvement in sensitivity, the ability to address problems of fundamental importance, the potential for new discovery, and the availability of observing time to a broad range of users combine to make this mission a key feature of the nation's astronomy program, not just that of x-ray astronomers. (page 87)

Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 1980s, Volume 1, report of the NRC Astronomy Survey Committee (the Field Report), National Academy Press, Washington, D.C. (1982):

The Committee believes that four major programs are critically important for the rapid and effective progress of astronomical research in the 1980s and is unanimous in recommending the following order of priority:

1. An Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) operated as a permanent national observatory in space, to provide x-ray pictures of the Universe comparable in depth and detail with those of the most advanced optical and radio telescopes. (page 15)

Space Science in the 21st Century—Astronomy and Astrophysics, report of the Task Group on Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Space Science Board, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C. (1988):

X-ray astronomy will achieve a substantial increase in observational capability with the anticipated launch of the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) in about 1994. (page 25)

The powerful capabilities of AXAF and the wealth of fundamental problems it can address suggest that this facility will advance research for a long time to come. (page 27)

The Decade of Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics, report of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee of the Board on Physics and Astronomy, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C. (1991):

The committee reaffirms the Field Committee decision that made AXAF the highest-priority large program of the 1980s and stresses the importance to all astronomy of deploying AXAF as soon as possible. (page 65)

The NRC is currently transitioning its advisory responsibilities in space astronomical research, previously vested in the Committee on Space Astronomy and Astrophysics and more recently in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee, to a new organizational structure. This new committee structure should be available soon to conduct a comprehensive assessment of any AXAF program modifications that might be proposed. In the meantime, the published corpus of NRC advice on AXAF unambiguously asserts the vital importance of this program for scientific advances in the astronomical disciplines.

I would be happy to meet with you to discuss these issues further if it would be helpful.